Hazara community celebrates freedom and heritage at Liberty Station
The ethnic minority group from Afghanistan has faced persecution for much of its history, but on Sunday its members focused on joy
Written by Kate Morrissey, Edited by Lauren J. Mapp
Sounds of tanpuras, harmoniums and tablas echoed across the park by Liberty Station on Sunday as San Diego's Hazara community celebrated culture, joy and freedom.
Hundreds gathered for the June 1 festival as part of a worldwide cultural celebration for Hazara, an ethnic minority from Afghanistan that has faced years of persecution, especially now that the Taliban is back in power there. A Hazara woman living in Pakistan began a worldwide movement to create a Hazara cultural day, which is officially recognized on May 19, and this was the second year San Diego's community participated.
Rahmat Mokhtar, a former interpreter for the U.S. Marines in Afghanistan who has been in San Diego since 2016 and one of the organizers of the San Diego celebration, said that the event is about celebrating a culture that has been long suppressed.
“We exist. We survived. We're resilient, and we're here,” Mokhtar said.
Neelab Saraabi, who came to the U.S. about 28 years ago and organized the event with Mokhtar, said that Hazara communities are used to holding events to acknowledge and speak out against the harms that have happened to them in Afghanistan and to fundraise to help those still stuck in the country.
“All of that is necessary and important,” she said. “But it does a number on the psyche of people because all you think about is the horrible things that happen to Hazara in Afghanistan.”
The cultural day, she said, helped the community remember the good things and the joy of their cultural practices.
She said many who have made it out of Afghanistan can feel homesick and also a kind of survivors’ guilt.
“The survivors who have made it here need some time to rejoice and enjoy their survival,” Saraabi said.
A standup comedian by hobby, she told jokes about gender roles to the crowd. Part of her goal in working on the event is to get more women involved in leadership roles, she said.
Extended families gathered with tents, canopies, lawn chairs and cushions, and they shared traditional Hazara foods, tea and laughter. Performers read poetry, gave speeches about Hazara culture and history, danced, sang and played traditional Hazara music — as well as some pop songs that got the crowd dancing with shimmying shoulders, twisting wrists and bobbing heads.
Hashmat Gulestani, who has been living in Los Angeles since 2014, performed as a singer and harmonium, or pump organ, player. He said he rarely has the opportunity to perform at that kind of public event.
The first song of his set, called Baran Baran, or Rain Rain, is about falling in love and being strong together, he said.
“Whatever you have inside yourself, dig it out,” Gulestani said. “Express it. State it.”
Mohammad J. Rahimi presented a proclamation from Mayor Todd Gloria acknowledging May 19 as Hazara Cultural Day. Rahimi said the day allowed Hazara people to wear their traditional clothes, eat traditional food and hug each other.
Shawn VanDiver, founder and president of #AfghanEvac, stood in the crowd taking pictures with men his organization had helped rescue after the U.S. withdrew its troops in 2021.
He spoke briefly on stage, lamenting the Trump administration's decisions to end many programs that helped Afghans resettle and acclimate in the U.S.
“It's a terrifying time to be an immigrant in America,” VanDiver said. “Fear is creeping back into homes where hope was just beginning to take root.”
He joked that he'd learned three things from working with Afghans — being on time isn't a priority, an idea that could be said in five words will be said in 50, and nobody fights like Afghans.
He told the crowd that they are not alone, that his organization is still doing what it can to help. He encouraged them to get involved in holding U.S. officials accountable and speaking up for their rights.
“Your strength is real,” VanDiver said. “You're not just survivors of war, but builders of peace. You're not just grateful for freedom, but determined to protect it.”
